Taking photos of your children; the truth behind the image

We’re all guilty of it. Posting and sharing idyllic photos of angelic children amongst a backdrop of beautiful scenery. In the interests of honesty, this is a sneak peek of what really happens behind the scenes in the quest to get that perfect shot…..

“Jessica”; she scratches her nose. “Jessica”; she looks to the ground. “Alright then, how about I give you a special treat (now I need to buy her a treat) if you can smile at the camera?”; cue over enthusiastic demonic grin.

Right, start again… I take a deep breath and compose myself. “Jessica” ; she looks at me but not the camera. “Look at me…” whistling..waving… "over here…over here..” "LOOK AT ME “ delivered in my most authoritative and assertive tone. "Jessica … look at me or your sleeping outside tonight...with the snakes" … she sharply looks in horror… “Jessica” under my breath I mutter "look at me and smile or your sleeping outside and I’m feeding you to a bloody big snake…”; her shoulders now cowering away from the camera. “Right that’s it... I’ve had it…”.

Surely there are few things in life that require more patience than taking a photo of your kids. The reality is in today's digital world with a camera in our pocket at all times we sometimes become fixated with capturing every moment. From the 100s, maybe 1000s, of photos we take each month, how many make it onto our desktop; the family album or even grandma's mantle piece? For the vast majority, they disappear into a digital abyss, and the hours invested in getting your child to pose reluctantly in front of some soldier bloke on a horse or an old church will be wasted.

So the big question is do we need them in the photo at all? What value does a force fed, smiling 4-year-old add to our picture? Does the effort justify the means? To them its the most boring idea in the world; at the very best they’ll look stiff and at worst they’ll run away! However, that said, when you do shoot that 1 in a 1000 shot; it makes it all worthwhile.

As you journey through our blog we have always done our best to ensure that our kids are angelically posed, smiling, with clean combed hair, sometimes they will even be sporting unstained clothes. We have ensured that the backdrop is not over exposed and we’re in focus. We have done our best to cut, crop and filter where required so our pictures will look like they've just come from a “Hello" or “OK” shoot.

As they say, behind every photo there will be a story, some will be of fun and happy times, some will be of utter frustration and others will be of two little girls being threatened by one “bloody big snake!"

Who are we?

We are an English/Australian family of four who left London in April 2014 to embark on an open-ended adventure. Join us as we share our stories, tips and insights on our experiences of life travelling with two young children.